Zeitgeist Girl!
February 28, 2019 4:57 PM Subscribe
Are there any superheroes or other characters whose powers could be defined or connected to The Zeitgeist?
My best friend and I have this running joke where one of us (usually me) have this uncanny ability to get involved or start something that goes viral or becomes a trend. Some examples:
* One of my group chats had this running battle about what constituted a sandwich just before this was a meme
* I've somehow gone viral about Marie Kondo three times in a week and a half
* The name of my best friend and the name of his character in a show we were both in have started appearing together in memes and other online stuff just randomly (admittedly the name of his character, Chad, is based on memes but the pairing with his ACTUAL name is a bit of a weird coincidence)
The closest thing I could think of is the the characters in Unwritten, who are based on literary tropes and pop culture characters (the lead being bestowed by powers given to a character in his
father's books) are powered by the Collective Unconscious. The Wicked + The Divine has this to some degree too though it's more like they *create* the Zeitgeist.
My best friend and I have this running joke where one of us (usually me) have this uncanny ability to get involved or start something that goes viral or becomes a trend. Some examples:
* One of my group chats had this running battle about what constituted a sandwich just before this was a meme
* I've somehow gone viral about Marie Kondo three times in a week and a half
* The name of my best friend and the name of his character in a show we were both in have started appearing together in memes and other online stuff just randomly (admittedly the name of his character, Chad, is based on memes but the pairing with his ACTUAL name is a bit of a weird coincidence)
The closest thing I could think of is the the characters in Unwritten, who are based on literary tropes and pop culture characters (the lead being bestowed by powers given to a character in his
father's books) are powered by the Collective Unconscious. The Wicked + The Divine has this to some degree too though it's more like they *create* the Zeitgeist.
The protagonist of William Gibson's Pattern Recognition, Cayce Pollard, has a somewhat related power that she uses as a trendhunter for advertising corps.
posted by snuffleupagus at 5:09 PM on February 28, 2019 [4 favorites]
posted by snuffleupagus at 5:09 PM on February 28, 2019 [4 favorites]
I think it's a fairly common fantasy idea that believing in something gives it power. I think of Terry Pratchett's Small Gods, in which a deity gains power by gaining followers.
posted by gideonfrog at 6:24 PM on February 28, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by gideonfrog at 6:24 PM on February 28, 2019 [2 favorites]
Jenny Quantum is the corporeal Spirit of the 21st Century, and the youngest known Century Baby, as well as being the successor to the Spirit of the 20th Century, Jenny Sparks.
posted by Sing Or Swim at 7:20 PM on February 28, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by Sing Or Swim at 7:20 PM on February 28, 2019 [2 favorites]
In the spirit of “I was just talking about this thing and now it's a thing!”:
The hero The Reader in Marvel comics has the ability to manifest anything that he reads; if he reads the word “fire”, a fire will start in his vicinity.
And the Marvel villain The Purple Man a.k.a. Zebediah Killgrave (just “Kilgrave” in the Jessica Jones Netflix series) can control people's actions through a combination of pheromones and verbal suggestion; he can cause a crowd of people to suddenly riot, for example, just by saying out loud that that's what he wants them to do.
And in the BOOM! comics series Irredeemable, a hero called Kaidan can summon characters from ghost stories to take physical form and fight for her, by telling their story out loud.
posted by D.Billy at 7:21 PM on February 28, 2019 [1 favorite]
The hero The Reader in Marvel comics has the ability to manifest anything that he reads; if he reads the word “fire”, a fire will start in his vicinity.
And the Marvel villain The Purple Man a.k.a. Zebediah Killgrave (just “Kilgrave” in the Jessica Jones Netflix series) can control people's actions through a combination of pheromones and verbal suggestion; he can cause a crowd of people to suddenly riot, for example, just by saying out loud that that's what he wants them to do.
And in the BOOM! comics series Irredeemable, a hero called Kaidan can summon characters from ghost stories to take physical form and fight for her, by telling their story out loud.
posted by D.Billy at 7:21 PM on February 28, 2019 [1 favorite]
Uncle Sam in DC comics has powers that " are said to be in direct proportion of the belief people have in the idea of the United States as The City Upon a Hill."
posted by vrakatar at 7:35 PM on February 28, 2019
posted by vrakatar at 7:35 PM on February 28, 2019
Perhaps not a superhero per se, but this is basically Forrest Gump, right?
posted by Maecenas at 7:41 PM on February 28, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by Maecenas at 7:41 PM on February 28, 2019 [1 favorite]
Best answer: This is the plot of Bellwether by Connie Willis
posted by bq at 9:28 PM on February 28, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by bq at 9:28 PM on February 28, 2019 [2 favorites]
Response by poster: Ooo the Bellwether rec is the closest to what I'm thinking of, though it does seem that the bellwethers themselves in the book aren't specifically magical? Are there, like, magical bellwethers?
I guess what I'm after is less an active manifestation power* but more of a seer-type thing or even a catalyst. Forrest Gump is an interesting example.
(* though if you have examples of people being able to manifest things they joke about I'm interested in that too because that's my other weird superpower)
posted by divabat at 2:51 PM on March 1, 2019
I guess what I'm after is less an active manifestation power* but more of a seer-type thing or even a catalyst. Forrest Gump is an interesting example.
(* though if you have examples of people being able to manifest things they joke about I'm interested in that too because that's my other weird superpower)
posted by divabat at 2:51 PM on March 1, 2019
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by waffleriot at 4:58 PM on February 28, 2019 [5 favorites]